News tidbits 10JUL2008

Doing another quick round-up of news in the JE world.

Probably the biggest news would be the announcement of Arashi's newest single truth/Kaze no Muko e. truth is the theme song for the drama Maoh that stars Ohno Satoshi and Ikuta Toma and Kaze no Muko e is the theme song for the Olympic broadcast in Japan. With Arashi's current popularity it's no surprise that both LE editions are 'out of print' at cdjapan already. But they could be open for pre-orders again at least once before the sale date.

Here are the links for the singles at cdjapan:

truth / Kaze no Muko e [Regular Edition] / Arashi

truth / Kaze no Muko e [w/ DVD, Limited Edition 1] / Arashi

truth / Kaze no Muko e [w/ DVD, Limited Edition 2] / Arashi

I can't help but think that with there being two different LEs if JE is trying to grab the number one spot for the singles of 2008. At the moment Aoyama Thelma holds that spot and is still selling steady. KAT-TUN is right behind but don't look like they'll be able to catch up let alone pass her sales. Arashi's singles may not be One Love has been as big as a seller as KAT-TUN's singles but it is a steady seller and should easily beat Step and Go and if it keeps selling strong could nab the top spot for the year itself.

The covers for the new NEWS DVD are out now. I kinda like how it seems to be in the same style as the last concert DVDs. The LE is the blue and the RE the pink.



Also Hey! Say! JUMP will be appearing on Music Station tomorrow, the 11th, and that will be the first performance for their new single. Also the preview is out for their PV for Your Seed. The set looks quite cheap but I'm not surprised about that. We should be getting the full PV soon, most likely early next week.

Beating the Odds.

There's been a topic that's been milling around in my thoughts for a while but only recently become prominent enough that I feel that it's worth it to really look into. And that is simply the odds any Junior in the Johnny's Jimusho has in reaching the treasured goal of debuting. I'm still in mid-thought about it but I wanted to write what I have so far so I wouldn't forget about these points later.

For me I like finding patterns, so I look to the past to try to find my answers for the future. I can't say I am all too familiar with the older JE groups so I am only going off with what information I can find for them. So to help myself out I made a list of all the groups from SMAP onwards and noted which ones were Junior groups before debuting and how many were in the group when they debuted.

SMAP (Junior group debut) (6)
Tokio (Created at debut?) (5)
V6 (Created at debut) (6)
Kinki Kids (Junior group debut) (2)
Arashi (Created at debut) (5)
Tackey & Tsubasa (Created at debut?) (2)
News (Created at debut) (8)
Kanjani∞ (Junior group debut) (6*)
KAT-TUN (Junior group debut) (6)
Hey! Say! JUMP (Created at debut) (10)

From the list the only group I could not find a reference to about whether or not they were a Junior group or not was Tokio. Out of the other nine groups four of them were Junior groups before debuting and four (the volley ball groups) were created for the debut, while Tackey & Tsubasa is an odd one as they were meant to be solo artists but because of Takki and the fans ended up debuting as a duo so I'm not 100% on what to list them as.

I honestly have to confess I originally thought there wouldn't be so many Junior groups that ended up debuting as a unit. Perhaps it's because Hey! Say! JUMP was the most recent debut. But seeing as about half of the current Johnny's acts were together as Juniors before hand, gives me a bit more hope for the current Junior groups to be able to debut together. Of course I don't think they all will do this, but at least it seems more possible than it did before to me.

Looking at the numbers it can be seen that since 1991, out of all the hundreds of Juniors that have come and gone from Johnny's only 56 have managed to debut (two of them twice with Ryo and Uchi debuting with News and Kanjani8), over half of them in just the past five years. Of course there have been a few loses since then, but right know I'm focusing on debuting not what happens after.

For Hey! Say! JUMP's debut concert it was reported that about 200 Juniors participated. I knew I was shocked to learn that there were that many Juniors. It was also then that I began to wonder about what chance does any Junior have to reach the final goal of debut. And it really does seem small even when you look at a large group like HSJ and compare it to those 200 Juniors that participated at their concert. That's 5% of the Juniors of that year (assuming that 200 is the actual total of all the Juniors at that time) of the Juniors that were able to finally debut.

If you estimate that the number of Juniors that actually perform on Shounen Club, as in both singing and dancing, regularly is roughly about 40, that's about 20% of 200. Which leaves 80% of the Juniors as only back dancers, most nameless faces to viewers. Out of that 20% performing on SC are the ones that get picked to debut. Even Keito, who had almost no time as a participating Junior, performed at least once on Shounen Club before HSJ was debuted, so I'm pretty sure this observation holds true. And while people gripe about HSJ having too many members I don't think the Juniors do, as with that debut about 25% of that 20% was taken out of SC, allowing others that were nameless back dancers to move up. And while I don't think we're going to see another huge group like HSJ for some time there's no doubt that the numbers are looking better for some of those 20% on SC. And of course they're all much better off than the other 80% of the Juniors.

Age of course is something that needs to be taken into consideration, so I decided to make the list again, this time listing the age range between the eldest member of a group and the youngest of the groups at the time of their debut.

SMAP (19-14)
Tokio (23-15)
V6 (24-14)
Kinki Kids (18-17)
Arashi (18-16)
Tackey & Tsubasa (20)
News (19-15)
Kanjani∞ (23-17)
KAT-TUN (22-20)
Hey! Say! JUMP (17-12)

Looking at this I wish I could find all those people that kept complaining about there being such a big age gap with HSJ, as their 5 years has nothing on the ten year gap V6 has. In fact a five year age gap seems quite normal, I think it was the ages that really threw people off as it was the first time a preteen debuted.

With the eldest person to debut at 24 most of the older Junior groups are actually okay age-wise for a year or two more. Yara of Butoukan and Yodogawa of Question? are 25 this year though, but I think with the younger members of their groups to balance things out a bit they still have a chance at debuting. But it will have to be soon for all the groups with members nearing 25, as Johnny's seems to like to debut younger than older. So I really wouldn't count the older Junior groups out just yet. Actually by going by age Toma could feasibly still have a chance at debut as he only turns 24 this year. I personally don't see it happening, but I wouldn't put anything past Johnny's.

So while it helps to be a teenager and performing on Shounen Club it hardly ensures that you'll get a debut. But even making it that far is pretty impressive to me as it means the Juniors on SC have been selected out of over a hundred other Juniors to be able to get a taste of a spotlight that they may one day attain. I'd like to think that it's a good deal of hard work that gets them selected, but I'm sure some of it comes down to luck and having the right kind of look/talent/attitude that JE is looking for as well.

August 2008 Shounen Club Report

The reports from the filming of next month's Shounen Club episodes are out now. And from reading them I know I'm really excited about August's episodes, though they're going to be a bit odd to watch.

What will make them a bit odd to watch is the fact that most of the Juniors were busy performing at concerts and musicals, as well as co-host Nakamura, hence why Shigeaki was there to fill his spot and co-host with Koyama. It pretty much just left Yamashita Shoon, the Hashimoto-trio (Hashimoto Ryosuke, Nozawa Yuki & Sanada Yuma) and 4/5 of Question? as Ishigaki was playing with FiVe for the concerts. Which is great for the remaining Juniors as they don't have to share the spotlight as much.

The guest is Imai Tsubasa from Tackey & Tsubasa for both episodes. And as I mentioned earlier Kato Shigeaki is there as a guest host. Shige got a lot of attention as he's apparently dyed his hair blond. I'm curious to see it, but a bit fearful too as I don't think I've ever seen a Johnny's pull off blond hair to date.

To help fill the void they brought back half of Hey! Say! JUMP to perform. The four from the Sensei wa Erai drama, Nakajima Yuto, Yamada Ryosuke, Chinen Yuri and Arioka Daiki as well as Yabu Kota. Yamada, Daiki and Yabu all get solos. I think I'm most excited about Daiki getting a solo as it's been so long since he's really been able to sing a solo of any kind. And it just looks like Yabu just sings his solo and it's the other four that sing the group songs, which will include Your Seed and Bouken Rider.

But even with the return of part of HSJ, the Juniors left do get their chances to shine. Question? got to perform two of their songs and Shoon showed off his sexy side in the KAT-TUN melody. And now I really want to see that KAT-TUN melody. XD

Shige is proving himself determined to strip on the SC stage as he made another attempt during the Junior League segment. He made it further this time too as Koyama wasn't in the position to see clearly what he was doing but did eventually figure it out. I really hope this doesn't get cut for the broadcast. The whole Junior League sounded like it was full of cute and fail from the boys, a perfect combination in my book for a fun time watching.

August can't come quick enough.

The filming for September will also be done this month, as all the Juniors will be busy with Summary and concerts so there will be no one left over for filming. Nakamura is scheduled to be there for the filming so I'm assuming the rest of the Juniors will be back again as well.

Also in slightly unrelated news, at the Kanjani8 concert it was announced that two of their members will be doing solo live stages, both using the Johnny's Theatre that is being put up for Summary. This makes it three non-Summary concerts that will be using this stage, KAT-TUN's Ueda Tatsuya is also scheduled to do a solo concert there after Summary is over. I wonder if this is just to help with the cost of putting it up in the first place, as making your own concert stage to fit 70,000 people can't be cheap, or if they have plans for it later in the year and need to find ways to make use of it until then. It's probably just me reading into things much more than necessary, but I wouldn't put anything past Johnny's.

Gokusen 3 trio in Taiwan

This was what I planned on talking about yesterday before I found that episode of Shounen Club. As I'm sure everyone knows by now who have been frequenting Hey! Say! JUMP and Kansai Junior communities the Gokusen trio, Takaki Yuya, and B.A.D. (Kiriyama Akito & Nakama Junta) had their live performance in Taiwan. I'm glad I waited though as the youtube links with the performance are all getting taken down rather quickly and I had to search for somewhere else that didn't look like the video was going to be yanked from. Luckily I did find such a place so just follow the hyperlink to watch the video.

Even though they don't sound all that great I do like the fact that it definitely is a live vocal performance without all the backing track help they usually get. It's refreshing to actually know that the live performance you're listening to is actually being all sung live, especially in the idol world where it's so easy for them to just throw up a backing track for performers to lip sync to.

You can tell the trio are nervous and it seems at the beginning it seems to get the best of them, like Takaki having trouble controlling his vibrato. And while they seem to relax a little as they go along there are still problems that can probably go back to a good lack of experience and a need to practice more. Like the fact Akiyama letting his voice drown out the other two and Takaki really forcing his voice more than it should so he can be clearly heard. I don't think I really heard Junta much at all, besides his MC which he had to do most of as the only one that knows how to speak Chinese.

I really hope they all look back at the performance and decide to work harder from now on for their vocals since I do like the tone of their voices and I'm sure with practice and experience they could pull off a live performance much better than the one in Taiwan. Not to mention they probably just need more experience period. I guess it's a good thing that they'll be performing in Summary, as a full month of concerts should help with that.

Shounen Club 09APR2000

Didn't plan on doing another Shounen Club entry so soon but I came upon this today and I thought it was definitely something worth talking about. This is the debut episode of the Shounen Club show that aired back in 09 April of 2000. It was strange watching it as the program has changed so much since then. Event he run times are different, this episode is only 30 minutes long instead of the hour long episodes of more current Shounen Clubs. The quality of the video I found isn't all that great, probably because it looks to be a VHS rip so the quality of the screencaps are rather low too.


The episode starts off with the Juniors dancing to, and I still can't believe this is the song, Will Smith's Wild Wild West. I really have to wonder what in Earth Yamapi is wearing as it looks so odd. But all the Juniors are introduced by their individual names, except for FiVe, who are the band playing in the background. It's strange to see a Shounen Club with so little Junior units after seeing so many SC episodes where the only featured Juniors tended to be the ones in units.


Considering the year of the show I'm surprised not to see Takizawa or Tsubasa anywhere in site, but I guess they wanted to focus on the younger Juniors on this program from the looks of things. The main host is Yamashita Tomohisa (who gets the most focus) and Hasegawa Jun and Jimmy Mackey are assistant hosts. Yokoyama Yuu is there too as a guest commentator to help out the younger ones with hosting. The actual guests of the program are Arashi. What's interesting about this part is that it is done in a studio set unlike the live stages which they're actually in front of an audience, though the do employ a laugh track, which seems a bit lame and is quite obvious with the male voices used in it. The studio looks so cheap and you can hear the squeaking of the seats when they're moved. They start off by listing things that they will be covering on the program before cutting to another live stage.


This live stage is Yamapi and Johnny's Jr. singing Sawarenai. And right now I'm going to apologize if I mess up a song or person's name as I have limited knowledge of Japanese, I can read katakana and hiragana just fine but kanji is a problem for me. But another thing I've noticed with the this episode of SC is that you get to see quite a bit of KAT-TUN before they were KAT-TUN. In this performance alone you get to see Tanaka, Taguchi and Akanishi singing and dancing with Yamapi. And I'm pretty sure one of the dancers in the black shirts is Ueda. In fact Kamenashi and Nakamaru are the only members I didn't spot at all. Either that or I just didn't recognize them.


After the performance it's back to the studio, this time to do a segment called Club News. They start by introducing the episode's guest, Arashi. They do a little report with two Juniors that I don't recognize the names of at all that go check out Arashi at dance practice. Then move on to talk about acting roles some of the Juniors currently have. I'm very glad Yokoyama is there as he seems to be the only one really relaxed in his role and his goofing off is amusing to see as the rest stumble through their parts.


Then Arashi performs a live stage of their own, singing SUNRISE NIPPON. As this is back in 2000 everyone is still pretty young looking, which really makes this feel like it's pretty old. One thing that hasn't changed is that Matsumoto Jun is a camera whore. And another sign that this was very low budget is the floating mic that showed up on screen above Sakurai during the performance.


It's back again to the studio to be the bridge to the next segment, Junior Face Fight. Which is just a glorified staring contest. I don't know who the little Junior is but I recognized the taller one as KAT-TUN's Ueda. It's overall rather boring and I hope they dropped this segment quickly.


It's then a return to the studio to see Yokoyama making out with a Domo-kun, the NHK channel mascot, plushie. Well maybe not making out but after the bore that was the last segment it comes off as rather cute and amusing. Though it only serves as a quick bridge to the next live stage which features Musical Academy performing Romantic Time, as in actually singing and dancing instead of just dancing as they did for the most part before they were recently dissolved. And as much as it scares me to think about it but I think those flower print suits that they're wearing are still being used, or at least the pattern for them.


It goes right into the next live stage, Suki ni Natteku Ai Shiteku performed by the Juniors, with Tanaka Koki and Hasegawa Jun on the lead vocals.


The Juniors leave the stage and Arashi comes back on to sing Ai no Arashi. I'm kinda curios to why Sakurai has a different shirt on than the rest, but I don't think that's something I'll ever know. Ninomiya is rather cute playing guitar for this as he looks so serious while doing it. And I don't anyone is surprised that somehow Matsumoto manages to undo his shirt so he can show his bare chest during the performance.


Ikuto Toma really should have been made one of the assistant hosts, as he seems like a natural host. His studio segment looks like the forerunner to the Junior ni Q segment of SC. It's just without any Juniors there to ask about their answers but it has the board where they paste their answers to the episode's question up. Not sure what the question is though, other than it's a 'yes or no' answer to it.


After that it's the end of the program. The last song is Love Letter sung by Yamapi and Johnny's Jr.

News - NEWS CONCERT TOUR pacific 2007 2008 -THE FIRST TOKYO DOME CONCERT- [DVD]

If you've been to any of the News communities in the past twelve hours then I'm sure you've already heard the news about this release. I know as a News fan I'm really excited about it and made sure to order my copy of the LE right away. For what I know of other News fans this has been long awaited, considering the concert was back in January. But from the looks of things it was well worth the wait as looking at the track listings that Johnny's.net has up for it it's loaded with material as both discs clock in at 190 minutes.

The first Johnny's concert I watched was News' Never Ending Wonderful Story concert, which I own the LE of. I loved watching it then and still love watching it now. Especially since I know so much more about them now and I recognize the Juniors back dancing for them, as several of the younger Juniors from that concert are now members of Hey! Say! JUMP. I'm sure this DVD will get just as many plays in my DVD player and I'm glad JE decided to release this on DVD so fans who couldn't make it to the concert could still get a chance to see it.

The only difference between the Limited Edition and the Regular Edition for this DVD release are the booklets and packaging. The RE comes with a 12 page booklet and regular packaging while the LE comes with a 36 page booklet and special premium packaging. But the price for both 5,900 yen and the content on both discs are exactly the same for both versions.

Disc 1

OVERTURE
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BEACH ANGEL
裸足のシンデレラボーイ (Hadashi no Cinderella Boy)
希望～Yell～ (Kibou ~Yell~)
Stand Up
Change the World
ゴメンネジュリエット (Gomen ne Juliet)
愛のマタドール (Ai no Matador)
Member Call by a DANCE SONG
SHOCK ME vs Devil or Angel
PRIVATE HEARTS
なんとかなるさ (Nantoka Narusa)
HAPPY MUSIC
DREAMS
星をめざして (Hoshi o Mezashite)
Fiesta
NANDE×2 DAME
サヤエンドウ (Sayaendou)
NEWSニッポン (NEWS Nippon)
永遠色の恋 (Towairo no Koi)
真冬のナガレボシ (Mafuyu no Nagareboshi)
SNOW EXPRESS
キッス ～帰り道のラブソング～ (Kiss ~Kaeri Michi no Love Song~)
抱いてセニョリータ (Daite Senorita)
青春アミーゴ (Seishun Amigo)
ズッコケ男道 (Zukkoke Otokomichi)
チラリズム (Chirarizumu)
愛なんて (Ai Nante)
君想フ夜 (Kimi Omou Yoru)
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VIBRATION
紅く燃ゆる太陽 (Akaku Moyuru Taiyou)
きらめきの彼方へ (Kirameki no Kanta e)
チェリッシュ (Cherish)

Disc 2

TEPPEN
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希望～Yell～ (Kibou ~Yell~)
太陽のナミダ (Taiyou no Namida)
夢の数だけ愛が生まれる (Yume no Kazu Dake Ai ga Umareru)
　
･MC @ TOKYO DOME
･NEWS CONCERT TOUR pacific 2007 2008 DOCUMENTARY
･NEWS 1st CONCERT 2007 IN TAIPEI DOCUMENTARY

Pre-order at cdjapan here:

NEWS Concert Tour Pacific 2007 2008 -The First Tokyo Dome Concert- [Limited Edition] / NEWS

NEWS Concert Tour Pacific 2007 2008 -The First Tokyo Dome Concert- [Regular Edition] / NEWS

Update: The LE is already 'out of print' at cdjapan. Though I wouldn't worry yet if you haven't pre-ordered your copy yet. It should go 'in stock' again in the next couple of days though it will most likely go 'out of print' again after that. Plus, when the release date arrives it should be back in stock again before it will be 'out of print' for the final time if the usual pattern holds for cdjapan's listings.

News tidbits

Ok, with the holiday weekend coming up I'm trying to save some things for that so I can make some quick entries on days I won't be around much. So today I'll just make an entry about various tidbits that aren't enough for a entry on their own.

Tegomass is doing another anime theme song. As Ai Ai Kasa was the ending theme for Neo Angelique, their new song Kataomoi no Chiisana Koi will be the sequel Neo Angelique Second Age, which begins airing on July 6th.

I'm kinda surprised that Tegomass is being so active all of a sudden. Hopefully though we can get an album out of this instead of more singles, even though their singles are rather loaded with song tracks. I'm also wondering if JE is giving News a break with all the Tegomass promotion so Kanjani8 can release a new single as the last one was released way back in March.

As the release date for Hey! Say! JUMP's new single comes up announcements for which shows they'll be on to promote it. So far dates for Hey! Hey! Hey! and Utaban have been announced. HSJ will be on the Hey!x3 on the 13th of July and fellow JE group V6, who are promoting their DVD single (which seems to be more of a mini-album than single), Vibes, will be on the same program. I'm wondering if we'll get some senpai-kouhai moments between the two groups, especially with Inohara as he has had all of them on Hyakushiki before. Utaban will be on the 17th of July.

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Masuda Takahisa!